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Huge trove of dinosaur fossils found in Antarctica: 71 million-year-old bones could reveal new clues

Author:Lisa Tang

Source:Lisaurus News

Release on :2016-12-21

Scientists have discovered more than a ton of 71 million-year-old fossils in Antarctica.

The fossils are mostly from prehistoric marine repitiles and birds, which a large proportion belonging to the mosasaurus.

Scientists now hope that analysis of their massive haul of bones will help reveal more details about how the creatures went extinct.

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The expedition took place on the James Ross Island, hundreds of miles south of Chile, and lasted from February to March.

'We found a lot of really great fossils,' said University of Queensland School of Biological Sciences researcher Dr Steve Salisbury.

'The rocks that we were focusing on come from the end of the age of dinosaurs, so most of them are between 71 million and 67 million years old.

'They were all shallow marine rocks, so the majority of things we found lived in the ocean.

They also discovered the fossils, including early ducks that lived at the end of the Cretaceous period.

The team found a few dinosaur remains too, which they hope to publish on in the future.

'We did find a lot of marine reptile remains, so things like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs – a type of marine lizard made famous by the recent film Jurassic World.'

'The diversity and quality of what we found will provide a detailed snapshot of life in Antarctica at the end of the age of dinosaurs', Dr. Salisbury told The Wall Street Journal.

'We went there because it is one of the few parts of Antarctica when in summer, rocks are exposed and for us it is a good spot for us to go because those rocks come from the end of the age of dinosaurs.'